Fun Facts: Johannes Vermeer 1632-1675
Johannes Vermeer
Johannes Vermeer
Johannes Vermeer
In honor of the anniversary of Vermeer’s upcoming birthday in October, let’s get into our fun facts.
Vermeer lived in Delft and married a wealthy Catholic woman, Catharina Bolnes and they had 14 children.
He possibly apprenticed with the artist Carel Fabritius (1622-1654).
Along with being a painter, he was also an art dealer and valuer.
His early manner of working was influenced by a local group of artists who admired the Italian artist Caravaggio. Evidence of this can be seen in his early work by the strong contrasts between light and dark.
Early in his career, Vermeer began working on history paintings, along with biblical imagery, and scenes of mythology, which was his aspiration originally.
He spent a long time working on each of his paintings, producing around 36 paintings in his lifetime.
He became famous for his household, daily-life scenes, which he began around 1656, possibly under the influence of Pieter De Hooch, where he captured people doing ordinary things, such as The Milkmaid.
He was careful to paint with precision and capture every detail, including using small dots to give the appearance of light reflected on such things as pottery, satin, or water.
He also took great care when creating his compositions and would meticulously place objects, as though creating a stage set.
Johannes Vermeer was known as the master of light, due to the masterful skill he employed of how he created the illusion of light in his paintings.
He died heavily in debt because of his art dealer business was not doing well, because of the poor economy at the time.
Vermeer was nearly forgotten after his death, partly because his work was thought to have been created by someone else, namely Pieter De Hooch.
Although unknown to the general public at the time, Vermeer’s work was admired by small circle in Delft.
His work was rediscovered by an art critic in the 19th century, which helped his work achieve more notoriety to a larger audience.
Sources: https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/, nga.gov, https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en
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Johannes Vermeer